Professors recognized by Fulbright Program

After spending three weeks in Argentina in July, Robert Arnove, IU chancellor’s professor emeritus, was asked to extend his stay.

The National University of Tres de Febrero in Buenos Aires, Argentina, submitted a request to the Fulbright Program asking Arnove to work with them.

Arnove, who researches educational and social change, particularly in Latin America, was named a 2011 Fulbright Specialist and received a grant to travel to Argentina.

“These are very short visits,” he said. “They establish a basis for ongoing conversation and connections.”

While in Argentina, he helped prepare for the 15th World Congress on Comparative Education Societies. Professors, administrators and specialists in the field met to discuss international education.

The Congress meets every three years, and the next meeting will be in Buenos Aires in June 2013.

Arnove also mentored graduate and doctoral students in Argentina.

In the past, military rule hindered Argentinian higher education. Many of the students he aided were in their 40s or 50s, he said.

Several of the students he worked with were former university presidents or deans that had been imprisoned or exiled due to Argentina’s military dictatorship, and others never had a chance to go back to school for graduate degrees.

They would come in with initial ideas, he said, and they sought feedback.

“I got to meet with some new people, as well as old friends,” he said.

Arnove is not the only 2011 Fulbright Specialist at IU, however.

Vasti Torres, a professor at the School of Education, recently left for a 21-day trip to South Africa and is expected to return mid-October.

Torres is working with University of the Free State in Bloemfontein, which requested that she receive a Fulbright grant after her work with the university last year. During her current visit, she will help develop studies on student experience and development.

“She is a very accomplished scholar who does work in education reform,” Arnove said.

­— Kirsten Clark